Where do demons go if they are sent out of somebody?

In most cases the Bible is silent on this subject. We read many times of demons being cast out of a possessed person, but nothing is said about where the demons go. We do have one exception to this in Mark 5 where Jesus met a man who was possessed of many demons. In verse 8 Jesus addressed the demons with these words, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit.” Their response is quite instructive, for verses 10-12 read, “Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country. Now a large herd of swine was feeding there near the mountains. So all the demons begged Him, saying, ‘Send us to the swine, that we may enter them’.” From this account we learn two things about demons. First of all, they inhabit certain geographic locations on earth, for they did not want to be sent “out of the country” (verse 1 tells us they lived in “the country of the Gadarenes”). And secondly, they love to possess a body, even if it is the body of a pig! Ideally they love living inside a human being’s body, in order to torment them and control them (as we see in the first 5 verses of this chapter).

We also get some light on this subject in Matthew 12:43-45: “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.” And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation” (NKJV). In this passage the Lord Jesus is actually speaking of the “unclean spirit of idolatry” which had left the nation of Israel and how it will return to them in a future day in greater force. But He uses a parable to teach this and in the parable itself we learn another truth; that when a demon leaves a man it continues to seek a place where it can “rest.” I take it this means that a demon looks for someone else to live in without being disturbed. If possibly, he will try to return to the man that he had possessed before. As stated above, demons want to possess a body in order to control the individual, perhaps with the ultimate goal of bringing him/her into complete submission to their master, which is Satan.

Before we close, let’s look at Luke chapter 8 where we have the same account as we saw in Mark chapter 5. We learn something else in verses 30-31: “Jesus asked him, saying, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Legion,’ because many demons had entered him. And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out INTO THE ABYSS.” In Mark 5:10 they “begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country”; here they go a step further and beg Him not to send them to the abyss. What is the abyss? We have the answer in Revelation 20:1 & 3 where we are told that an angel had “the key to the BOTTOMLESS PIT” and that he will cast Satan “into the BOTTOMLESS PIT” where he will be bound for a thousand years. The demons know that the “bottomless pit,” which is the same word in the Greek as the word “abyss,” is where they will eventually be, along with their master. They have a real fear and dread of this prison where they will be forced to live without the ability to possess human bodies and to control the minds and hearts of men. Until that time they are free to roam the earth and to exert their influence over mankind, and as we have seen, they prefer to possess the bodies of men. (218.1) (DO)